Ma Iti? – an installation project.

‘Ma Iti’ (Hebrew for ‘What is it with me?’) is a 4 channel HD video / audio installation by Ronni Shendar and Till Rohmann addressing questions of identity, home and the many uncertainties and complexities that comprise life in Israel.

This work in progress began in 2006 through filming and collecting interviews and documentary footage in Israel and was presented in various stages of its development. This version of ‘Ma Iti?’ that will be shown in Frankfurt this year was created in 2007 and is comprised of interviews with 7 Israeli musicians and artists, film footage from their homes, streets and surrounding, together with field recordings from Israel. This recorded material focuses on the smaller and derived details that make up the personal maps and navigation points of this complex land encompassing the difficult, often sad and beautiful constant challenges one faces in the varying personal, political, economical and social aspects.

The installation has originally been created for presentation on 4 large screens standing in a form of a square or cube using HD rear projection, in order to allow one to stand between all 4 screens and ‘enter’ the video or to view the screens from aside. Sometimes all screens are exhibiting simultaneously, sometimes some of them fade black and only one is left to tell its story. We wanted to create an atmosphere in which the viewer is never really able to grasp on all that is happening and to allow the viewer to pick their own personal perspective. This un-linear and at times hectic effect was created in order to bring across some of the atmosphere one confronts frequently in Israel: the difficulty of processing and handling the many layers that simultaneously exist together with the continuous rapid change of realities – one will always miss out on something.

The version to be shown in Frankfurt had been specially altered into a one-screen / four-frame version due to the special needs and dimensions of the museum hall.